Oman’s Ministry to inaugurate the Bisya and Salut Visitor Center

Muscat: The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism will inaugurate the Bisya and Salut Archaeological Visitor Center, in the Wilayat of Bahla in the Governorate of A’Dakhiliyah, on the day after tomorrow (Thursday), under the auspices of His Excellency Salem bin Muhammad Al Mahrouqi, Minister of Heritage and Tourism, coinciding with the activities of the Dakhiliyah Festival 2023.

The establishment of the center comes within the framework of preparing the archaeological sites for the tourist movement and meeting the visitor’s knowledge of the historical dimension of the ancient Bisya and Salut region, and the history of archaeological research in the region that began in 1973.

The exhibition halls in the center were divided into 3 main halls; The first represents the Bronze Age period, the second hall represents the Iron Age period and the Islamic period, and the third is the World Heritage Hall in the Sultanate of Oman.

The halls include 21 a box for archaeological holdings containing 344 selected pieces, and 28 panels that present a presentation of the history of archaeological work, archaeological studies in the region, and the results of the work that was carried out in the archaeological sites in Bisya and Salut.

The center allocated a set of annual programs and events to involve the local community and activate its role in the field of heritage protection through classroom and field programmes.

Haitham bin Muhammad Al-Ghassani, Director General of Tourism Promotion at the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, said: The ministry has been organizing tourism festivals in the governorates of the Sultanate of Oman due to its unique elements. With the aim of creating attractive tourism activities for visitors and residents, increasing tourism attraction, introducing tourist destinations, introducing cultural and historical heritage, involving small and medium enterprises and members of the local community, increasing economic returns for them, and raising the occupancy rate of hotel establishments.

It is worth noting that Salut is considered a main axis and a continuous extension of the multiple cultural heritage in its architectural forms, its huge circular towers, its deep wells dug in its space, its earth tombs in the slope surrounding the fort, and the burials of the Bronze Age in various levels of the heights facing the fort, its rock carvings, and its various archaeological materials. And the symbols it bears of deep historical dimensions, its jars filled with copper molds, and its various seals that confirm the existence of an administrative system and a centralized cultural and commercial rule in a wide network of external relations with the centers of civilizations of the ancient world, such as: the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Rome .